NY NOW Podcast

The Paper Plane Cocktail Hour: Location, Location, Location

• NY NOW • Season 1 • Episode 85

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 Sometimes a map does more than get you from point A to point B; it can define a destination, and by extension, our emotional connection to it. Just ask married couple Rachel Rheingold and Michael Berick, who were inspired by grocery totes sited on a trip abroad to launch Maptote in 2006. This Brooklyn-based house of design has been much imitated, but Rachel and Michael reveal how they keep their totes, pouches, and other vibrant offerings fresh year in and year out, garnering collabs with A-list clients like HBO, and keep their retail audience consistently coming back for more. 

RESOURCES   
Guest Websites:   
https://maptote.com/

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Amy Loewenberg:

Hello everyone and welcome to the paper plane cocktail hour. I am one of your hosts Amy Loewenberg, senior relations manager for New York now community spotlight podcaster and all around retailer advocate. My focus is to bring you important information, conversations and perspectives from both sides of the aisle.

Sarah Schwartz:

And I'm your host Sarah, you may know me as the founding editor and editor in chief of stationary trends magazine, my site, the paper nerd or possibly my other podcasts and paper fold. I've been covering the stationery and gift industry since 1997. But Never did I imagined that I'd one day be covering the market here in the virtual space.

Amy Loewenberg:

So throughout 2022, Sara and I will be raising our glasses alongside our pencils as we share stories, compare notes and celebrate three of our all time favorite topics, stationary connection and cocktails.

Sarah Schwartz:

Cheers. So longtime paper planes, listeners already know that we have divided 2022 into phases. In the first quarter we examined members of our community in their initial phase of their careers. And in May as the second quarter began, we move to the next phase which really can be just as challenging as getting established. It can be really daunting to feel the need to constantly provide your audience with something new that is simultaneously in the style your audience is expecting. But that's why I think today's guests are so perfect for us to have on this is not their first rodeo by any means and they present a prolific and polished array of products year in and year out. Amy, why don't you spell who we're having for cocktails this lovely July evening. I would

Amy Loewenberg:

love to longtime friends of New York now Maptote began coming to light in 2006 when founders married couple Rachel Rheingold, and Michael Berick were on vacation in Germany, when they noticed that grocery stores for selling cotton reusable tote bags. Now Michael is a cartographer and that essentially is a mapmaker. Right, and Rachel, who studied art at NYU and fashion design at Parsons was then working as a fashion stylist. Thus, map tote a line of products decorated with maps of locales, both domestic and exotic was born.

Sarah Schwartz:

What sets Maptote apart from its many imitators. First, the quality of their illustrations and imagery, which if you have not seen you are missing out on. Secondly, every map tote product is made with care lavished on every last detail. They personally sourced their fabric. All totes are made with us cotton. Their fabric is cut, sewn and printed in Brooklyn, New York, Rachel and Michael love visiting their factory so they can watch their products being made and know exactly who is making them. They're very hands on with the entire process, even though they say it makes them crazy sometimes. In the end, it gives them a real connection to their products.

Amy Loewenberg:

And that personal connection also extends to the imagery on their carefully crafted range. At first they chose cities and locations that they have lived in loved or visited. Now they get commissioned to do new locations and have worked with clients from Game of Thrones to Loxy Taan and really have fun bringing each special destination to a vibrant life. Meanwhile, well they started with the grocery tote map tote now also wholesales wine, totes, zip pouches, note cards, posters, and maybe one pieces.

Sarah Schwartz:

I think anyone who has ever seen map tote at market or discovered one of their products in the wild at retail knows that they have stumbled onto a product that may be imitated but never truly duplicate it. You

Amy Loewenberg:

are correct as always, Sara. All right. Let's kill those drinks and bring this dazzling design Darrow on already.

Sarah Schwartz:

Hey guys, welcome. Hi. How's it going?

Amy Loewenberg:

Good.

Sarah Schwartz:

Good. Thank you so much for being here.

Rachel Rheingold:

Thank you so much for having us.

Sarah Schwartz:

So one thing that I have always been really curious about is what goes into turning a place into imagery that will immediately visually evoke it. Last year, you guys were kind enough to send me one of your New York City shopper totes and honestly I really, really do love it more every time I use it. It's strong. It's durable, it's earth friendly. And it's super Luke's for, for what it is for it being a tote. And I really love the fun images that really bring the location to life. There's a pigeon, there's a hot dog, there's an icon for Central Park a cab. So it makes me really curious. Can you share a bit about the process of bringing different locales around the world to visual life that is sort of like instantly recognizable? Who does what? How many iterations does a new city go through? And how do you decide when it's time to add new ones? And maybe take something out?

Michael Berick:

Okay, that's a great question. We definitely get the last one a lot about, when are you going to add my city. So if somebody comes from Topeka, Kansas, or Carson City, Nevada, or wherever everybody wants their own city, and that isn't really how we, we go about adding a new city to our line, but we definitely get a lot of input from the outside world. But initially, we started out with maps. So like our, our first map was, was Brooklyn because that's where we're based out of, and that's what we're most familiar with. And to go back even further, I'm a, I'm a cartographer by trade. So maps came, you know, pretty natural to me. And I was doing it more on like a real technical field. And when Rachel and I met, we wanted something, something else to do in terms of like, you know, like a, something we can do together and kind of merge what we do. I've never really took art or design classes. And we kind of like fused our general my love for Cartoon cartography, and kind of her background in fashion. And so we mainly started with maps of places that we kind of knew, where whether we're from where we're, like, pretty familiar with, so like LA, San Francisco, California, in general, is where I'm from. But I went to school in Oregon, so I'm familiar with, with Portland, and obviously, New York and Brooklyn, and to a lesser extent, queens in the Bronx. But these were kind of like locations that we started with. And that we knew, because it was easier to us, or we had close friends were there. And as we branched out, we sort of, if we got places that we weren't as familiar with, or I'd never been, too, we'd kind of reach out to our friends or friends of friends to kind of get local insight. Because we didn't want this to be just your generic tote bag, you know, the Empire State Building or, you know, something like just like very obvious one.

Amy Loewenberg:

I love it. You guys, like did a great job. I mean, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I love that, like the Upper West Side is represented by a big old T Rex on the Manhattan bag. You know, I love it.

Sarah Schwartz:

Yeah, there's a certain insider element. And, you know, if writers are told to write what they know, like, it makes sense that you would start out sort of like drawing what you know, you know, mapping what, you know, so to speak.

Michael Berick:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And

Rachel Rheingold:

Michael kind of set the aesthetic of like, the design and the maps. And I think it came, I went to art school, for he didn't he never did any art classes, like he mentioned, or any design classes. And it I feel like he had like a very fresh, different sort of feeling to, you know, representing location and drawing, and it had, I don't know, so he kind of set the aesthetic, I give my two cents, and kind of my, you know, backseat driver input on on design, and ideas, but it really like the, you know, the idea of everything really came from Michael and we now have a designer on our team who helps us, you know, make more and more and more and more, because there's a lot going on, but, uh Yeah, and then we always, I guess going back to, you know, the design in terms of we really wanted to also like our maps to be something that like a local could really appreciate and like a local like, there's a little bit there's like humor, it's not you know, and there's kitch and there's a little bit of you know, tongue in cheek and it's not like a real map. Sometimes people get like

Sarah Schwartz:

you're not really going to be able to find the

Rachel Rheingold:

map and it is based off of real maps, but there's, you know, sometimes people get very technical with us and I have to remind them, you know, yeah, it's kind of

Amy Loewenberg:

street I know we're so How is Yeah?

Sarah Schwartz:

Yeah. Yeah, and I love that you guys kind of came up at the same time like in stationery it was like all about wedding maps and really crazy invitations at that time where everybody was doing directions cards and map cards. And it was just like this very vibrant time in the industry. And you guys definitely came out of that. I mean, like, but I do I love the idea of icons, representing a place as well, like on your New York bag, you have it I'm walking here, which is just clever.

Michael Berick:

Thanks, we appreciate that. And I want to go back to I was joking about the Topeka, Kansas and Carson City, Nevada. But once we do get a lot of requests in terms of like, locations, for example, like Colorado, I get a lot of requests for that we started adding it. And we add new products and designed based off kind of like how successful or existing sometimes in New York

Rachel Rheingold:

now we get beaten down. It's like the show of like, this is the show that we're seeing everybody's from like North Carolina, and you're like, Oh my God, you're their fifth person who walked into our booth, from you know, like, I don't know, you know, like, someplace you're like, and then afterwards you're like, I think we might have to do that location. So well, you should just

Amy Loewenberg:

use this as a resource. And like, you should just tap into those people and have them share the insider scoop, you know, yeah. Just put them to work, man. Just put them to work. You know, a buyers are like,

Michael Berick:

yes. Oh, yeah.

Amy Loewenberg:

You know, I walk into so many retail shops all over the country. And whether it's like a gift store museum, or gourmet food shop, I can usually spot a map tote item, or many of them all over the place. Yeah. Do you feel like you have? I mean, you did you kind of mentioned it before, but like, you feel like you've got insider knowledge on places that you've never been? And maybe now want to visit? Like, you got the 411 on so many locations. Is there any place that you want to go now?

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah, I mean, part of this also, when we started mapped out when we were when we were like dating or like, what can we do together that we can travel that we, you know, could be our own boss and all that stuff. And like travel was definitely something that both we both had traveled a lot before knowing each other, we traveled a lot, you know, once we got together, you know, like, we love travel, we love going places. So it kind of worked out in the sense that um, so a lot of the beginning of map tote was traveling to places and you know, kind of going on sales trips to like, you know, you're traveling somewhere and then we're gonna go find stores and places to sell our product but um, and a lot of times now people come to us and you know, they're like, you know, make a map of like, for example, there's a place called Peaks Island in Maine, we've never been to Maine at somewhere we wanted to we wanted to go to and we did a map of Peaks Island for them and you know, did a little collection of products for them. And now this summer, we're going to Peaks Island because it looks so amazing.

Amy Loewenberg:

Is it like divided into like eight Sorry. No, I totally interrupted you. I'm so sorry. I was like it's pizza island like a circle divided into like eight quadrants or something like that. No, I did not

Rachel Rheingold:

go over well. It's an island off of Portland, Maine. And I think,

Michael Berick:

I think it's like a quick farrier trip. It's like a day trip. And I think people go I mean, I shouldn't speak to intelligently about it, because I've never been but we're going for like a day. But it may stuff like you know, we do this with Peaks Island. There's an island, I believe in Michigan called Mackinac Island. Like there's all these like, like, really interesting places that I'd never even thought of in a million years. And then you start doing the research and getting the insight from the customer that you're working with. And you're like, wow, it looks like an amazing place to visit.

Amy Loewenberg:

I was like, I wonder products are coming up now.

Sarah Schwartz:

Yeah. And how cool to go somewhere that you've kind of like drawn and depicted and then experience it and it must be like, vaguely familiar and a little surreal. And a little strange. Yeah. Familiar.

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah.

Michael Berick:

We like visiting the stores to hopefully like the people that we've worked with are they're kind of talking to them. And I think it gets like a more personal sort of feel towards it, too. So

Amy Loewenberg:

yeah, so if you were making an item featuring some of your favorite images that you've created, what would they be and what fun things would this new place offer us?

Michael Berick:

That's a good question.

Rachel Rheingold:

Like a sorry like a real place or

Amy Loewenberg:

just now this is like a map to created place.

Sarah Schwartz:

To the ultimate apto destination

Rachel Rheingold:

ultimate, ultimate. Okay, for me it would be, I don't know, the Bahamas, or like something like that, like a beach. I don't know in terms

Amy Loewenberg:

or so like the images that you guys have created like what were some of your favorite images that you would like create and then and create your own space your own new map took place?

Rachel Rheingold:

Cuz I got it so okay well my I'm just jumping in in the sense I love when we create an AI anything that's like New York or Brooklyn, it just feels there's those are always my favorite

Michael Berick:

things I find it for me in terms of the ease ease of it of it. I like doing islands because there's a defined border. And then I love ocean faring like themes and concepts in nature. Not that I'm going against like urban stuff because I always love like the Reverend like Paul Bunyan in the Blue Ox like statue or like largest chair in the United States, sort of like weird roadside attraction. If I can combine those all on an island. I think that would be like my idea. Have a great imaginary mountain location. Okay, well, there we go.

Amy Loewenberg:

Yeah, it is actually kind of like Manhattan, you know. And I'm actually moving just across the bridge to Brooklyn. One thing that I'm sorry that I missed was the, the the window decal that you did for one of our favorite Brooklyn locations, and he's blue ribbon general store

Sarah Schwartz:

it a little blue.

Amy Loewenberg:

You know, this is such an important marketing space and design. And the design obviously is essential to in attracting people to enter the store. But it's also an amazing real estate space that map toad has tapped into tell us about this fun collaboration with Annie. She's such an incredible woman. Do you see window decals is something like what's new, I know you didn't just do and it's brand new.

Rachel Rheingold:

We love and an Annie's it's our it that's like our local gift store. And so and our office is very close to it. That was really all Annie's like idea. Like she came to us. And you know, she always does this really fun window, you know, just designs and displays. And she came to us and was just like, let's do something like a motto window. And we've been selling to her for you know, before she had her store in Fifth Avenue. And she had her store near Atlanta. And she's always been a big map tote supporter. And yeah, so she came to us. And it was like, you know, we came up with some ideas, and it was like a collaboration between us and her. And it was definitely, you know, something outside of, for us a little bit to step outside of what we do and thinking of it also in that scale. Yeah. Which sometimes, you know, is daunting, but it's also kind of fun and pushes us a little bit to think like that. But yeah, so that we would love to do it again, for other stores. I mean, we do sometimes, you know, it is really great to like, be pushed and kind of, you know, have to think, think a little differently. And sometimes a lot of ideas come out of that too, you know? Yeah.

Michael Berick:

So we used to do a lot of work with Laci town. And they did a lot of they we incorporated a lot of our artwork on like, murals. And that was always tough. And I have to give a shout out to Kelsey, who's our designer who is much more advanced and better at things than I am and she was she was instrumental in working with us on those designs and because with stores especially they all have different dimensions and scale and all these sorts of concepts. And then they want to evoke all these different things. And I really enjoyed doing that sort of stuff. Just because it does take us out of our comfort zone

Sarah Schwartz:

for sure. Oh absolutely. Private Label work is so interesting. Like it you know, it's so cool to kind of meet with somebody and see what their needs and concerns are because usually it's not it well in my experience. It's not anything that I would have considered like it's so interesting to see things from their perspective and then it just better informs you know what you what you deliver to your own clients as well.

Michael Berick:

Yeah, no, we did a I love Hi, I'm Rachel me and I was doing Beverly Hills. But we were like we do all these things that you never even thought we would do. Like we've done work with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in New Mexico. We're very, like involved with what we were doing and it wasn't necessarily geography related. It was

Rachel Rheingold:

more Georgia O'Keeffe inspired using her, you know, elements from her from her fashion that she wore like we did bandanas. So we looked at like bandanas that she actually wore and looked at a lot of the graphics that she used and where we were allowed to use it. And yeah, made like, Yeah, wow. Yeah. bandanas.

Amy Loewenberg:

It's a little bit of an honor. That's so

Sarah Schwartz:

cool. I'm sure if you weren't into Georgia O'Keeffe before, like you're like,

Rachel Rheingold:

Oh, yeah. Well, before so it was. It went in very high high standards. Yes.

Sarah Schwartz:

Wow. That's it. That's amazing. Have you had any other clients that kind of like come to mind that you're like that you would have never thought that they would have you know that you would have the opportunity to collaborate with them or that they would reach out to you that you've worked with?

Michael Berick:

Yeah, there's, there's, we, you know, we've done some work for HBO, which we did this thing for Game of Thrones, where they wanted to do like,

Rachel Rheingold:

a map of Westeros, which is like they're kind of mythical. Yeah. Yeah. Western. Yeah, exactly. Where it all where it all goes down. Yeah, we worked with them on that. And they use it for a lot of events.

Michael Berick:

And they also did their high maintenance show, which was based in Brooklyn, and so they do a lot of like, not set and I mean, truth be told, I seen the show, but we're doing the map. You're like, did this certain is awesome. So we started watching. Yeah,

Rachel Rheingold:

yeah. So that's kind of our it's fun.

Michael Berick:

Yeah, that's definitely a fun one.

Sarah Schwartz:

That's really cool. Have you had any of your products like feature I know a lot of makers will be like, Oh, my print is in the on the wall and sex in this area. And so whatever the new Sex in the City is called.

Rachel Rheingold:

On any No, but like, I don't know, I feel like you always

Michael Berick:

I feel like we get TV shows. They'll be like, we use your shirt. Like during this TV show. I know. off the top my head. I can't think

Rachel Rheingold:

of them now. But like, you know, somebody like sent us once like a paparazzi picture like Natalie Portman wearing our bag. Yeah. Like, I love her.

Amy Loewenberg:

I have your artwork displayed on my front door knob with the Manhattan bag proudly featured facing workout every day.

Sarah Schwartz:

It's amazing, where it shows up. And it's yeah, you know, the sort of thing it just you achieve this sort of like omniscient omniscience? Is that the right word? Yes, I think so. Yeah,

Michael Berick:

I appreciate that.

Sarah Schwartz:

So you guys are obviously also a married couple who run a business together and raise two children as well. That's a lot of collaboration. I don't know, with my husband, like, when, like, and I'm trying to work. It's in my hair. So I'd love to hear a little bit about the division of labor that you guys have come up with to that make it

Rachel Rheingold:

how much time do you have? Like, whoever's when I lay down

Sarah Schwartz:

which is kind of how it works with my husband.

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah, no, I hear it all the time. I mean, it's been a process and it's, like, ebbed, like, flowed in different ways. And we both quit. We've both fired each other like there's definitely it's not perfect. Like I don't want you know, but at the same time, like I don't know, we do really like being around each other. And we are very, you know, codependent on each other for good or for bad. Just like everything like, whether, ya know, we're always my, when I'm in the office there must be think I'm nuts because my phone's always like dinging or I'm like, Hello. So we're always it's just very everything is you know, pretty fluid and I think we enjoy and I like that I get to be with him all day and I liked

Amy Loewenberg:

Um, well, that's a big help right there.

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah, we still do really like each other. enjoy being around each other. Kids.

Sarah Schwartz:

How old are your kids now?

Rachel Rheingold:

Our kids are nine and 11 Nine and 11.

Sarah Schwartz:

Okay, finding a dog. Do you have a talk? I mean, I just find, like my daughter's about she's actually turning 16 tomorrow and yeah, thank you, I, I definitely find that the challenges I have with her as a teenager are different than the challenges I had with her. And challenge is not the right word, but the, you know, our activities, what we're doing is they're different than when she was nine or 11. And so, you know, part of being a parent is rolling with everything and not getting too comfortable with, like, the phase that your child is in, because that's so, you know, that's hard to keep up with, as well as running a business and keeping up with, you know, a constantly shifting market pandemic,

Amy Loewenberg:

you know, you name it. Yeah,

Rachel Rheingold:

I mean, I think so Mapco kind of started and we always say, like map to it was kind of our first baby. So in a way, Mapstone is almost like this child to us that we are responsible for taking care of constantly thinking about whether we're there or not, like, it's, you know, like, making sure that Matt Toad is thriving, you know, just as much as we're thinking that our own human children are thriving.

Amy Loewenberg:

So, vacation, and will the child survive while you're away?

Rachel Rheingold:

Like checking my phone that making sure that like, you know, was everything happening, or you know, like, so I can't even we do go on vacation? Like, um, so it's yeah, there's still I need a couple hours just to like, figuring out what's going on or making sure things are happening. So yeah, which is having a business the, there's pros and cons, and that's probably fine. That's another conversation. But, um, in terms of like, So, we kind of like where we're at the past few years or more, you know, we've kind of realized that it was better for one of us to kind of be the one like leading, leading the ship and making like the decisions. So it wasn't, you know, we're, it's both of us, but it's kind of turned to me, I was kind of the one doing more of the operations doing all the production. And just like managing the whole business, so yeah, the manufacturing, so it kind of just turned to me. So I was mainly on my back. However, Michael is still very much does a lot of Mapco, he does a lot of the design, he does a lot of the sales, he does a lot of just like helping me with back end, like, you know, admin sort of things. So and we ended, we actually made our business, officially a woman owned business just because of because of that, because I kind of we decided to just like, put it on me, I guess. But even though he's here, and he's very much a part of it. It just, I think it just makes it a little bit more streamline. So, you know, there's not as much back and forth. If you did this, I did that. Or why didn't you do this? Why did you do that? Or, you know, it just I it works, right?

Michael Berick:

I mean, we're not we're pretty. We're women owned and operated. So everyone in our offices as well, we have four employees, and they are all women. I mean, it's mainly women who are running this along with Rachel, obviously, and I'm there and I'm helping them doing things, but it really is like a woman that only operate a business. And

Rachel Rheingold:

he's more, you know, picks up the kids and kind of is a little bit more,

Sarah Schwartz:

I guess, are the token male? Yeah.

Amy Loewenberg:

Very well, switch gears a little bit here. Let's talk about the industry a little bit. How, how have the How have the events of the past couple of years changed the way you see the gift industry? Like what awarenesses? Or trends do you think will continue to evolve? And what are you hoping for?

Rachel Rheingold:

So I think people are becoming more conscious of what they are purchasing, whether how it's made or where it's made. And I kind of hope, you know, I hope that continues that people ask these questions, and they care about that. You know, I think for us, we we started our business in 2006, making bags that we wanted to replace plastic bags at the grocery store. And we were thinking that Michael very much was the one to kind of say, you know, when I was like sourcing different places or where to get these things made. He was like, why would we ship these bags across the world to Brooklyn and like have this carbon footprint he had also like a background in environmental studies. Some things like that, so he has, I feel like had that on his brain for much longer than myself. But so that was kind of the impetus of like, okay, now I have to figure out, getting it made, you know, local to us. And I do think that that, you know, I think as our business in the beginning of our business, people didn't really care about that as much, they didn't really see that as value. They didn't always understand where our price was coming from. And I think people have started to really come around to it, and the past few years, and they get it, and they want it. And, you know, I kind of hope that that continues, just, you know, not just for map tote, but for the gift industry for the world, you know, or that people are thinking like that. So, um, yeah, so I hope that continues as a,

Michael Berick:

as, in, we're constantly learning, I mean, things are changing. There's, you learn, whether it's like something with our design or something with how we produce things, or even how we package things. And we're

Rachel Rheingold:

not perfect by any means, you know, but and it's always that is something we are always right. So we're learning,

Sarah Schwartz:

you guys are so forward looking. I mean that you were wanting to first makers I saw that was talking about sourcing and frayed, you know, and how far something has to travel and the footprint of a product. And I and I really appreciated it when I first saw it, and it was so nice to see. Others starting to think that way. And as far as your product goes, like, it's it. I mean, I think of it as like a luxury tote. I mean, it might not be luxury in the same way. But you know, it's luxury, and that it's a premium product, like it's so well made, you know, every detail is perfect. And it's a it's a nice product. I mean, I can tell when I hand it to them at the grocery store, if they're bagging my goods, like, you know, the person's like, Oh, this isn't just a tote, like, this is a nice toe.

Amy Loewenberg:

You know, people absolutely recognize that, Sarah, you're totally right about that when when somebody's touching and bailing it. I think the the comment I want to make is that you have been like, you've evolved, obviously, but you've been true to your brand from the very beginning. And, you know, if you think about you guys were really in the forefront of bringing reusable bags here. Right? I mean, it's, it's less than 20 years, it's kind of hard for us to imagine now that we don't go to the supermarket with our own bag, but you guys were like, really one of the first and so if not the first Right, yeah, thanks.

Michael Berick:

Yeah, I

Rachel Rheingold:

hope so. You know, and I want our bags to be something Yeah, like somebody they're gonna use and really reuse and really wants to use, you know, they're going to want to carry it around and not feel like, Oh, I'm just throwing this in the trunk of my car, you know, or like, have it shoved in another bag like that. That's the bag?

Amy Loewenberg:

Well, you kind of hit the nail on the head. I mean, we all have tote bags, but you know, I have no doubt that there are hundreds of 1000s of people like me, hopefully hundreds of 1000s where literally like, like which bag do I want to carry today, you know what I mean? And yours is like right in the front there. And, and for me personally, when I travel and I'm giving a gift, like the most fun thing to do is to put it in a Manhattan bag and present. But just I guess I just really want to say congratulations, because I've seen like your product has visually been very strong and consistent. Even though I know that you have you know, obviously we make tweaks and we evolve along the way. It's so recognizable and so strong that you haven't had to reassess redesign, you know, and make these huge shifts. It is it is a strong statement. And it's a great one so it just keeps on going guys just keep

Rachel Rheingold:

Chia Pet going and going out. Yeah.

Sarah Schwartz:

I mean, you totally have a signature look that visible and able to be defined. And some people try and try and try and never achieve that. And like likewise. I mean, I can't think of when you know, I'm gonna guess like maybe Excuse me 10 years ago, when the idea of the reusable tote first came to market and every vendor threw them in their range, you know, like you would walk market and everybody had them and you know, they were all different configurations and all different materials. You know very Few are still doing it. And very few have kind of like stood the test of time. And, and very few, you know where it's carefully considered as yours. So, you know, thank you. Yeah, I mean, really you guys should be really proud because it's not an easy achievement at all.

Michael Berick:

Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. Well, yeah, no, we, we, I mean, Rachel and I work so hard. And we have a great team who works with us who, you know, has allowed us to do what we do. And so we appreciate the kind words it doesn't mean a lot to us.

Amy Loewenberg:

Yeah. Well, that's the best thing is being able to do what you love, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What's next for you guys?

Rachel Rheingold:

You know, we're always pushing to figure out something new. I feel like there's always whether it's like a new design, like a new way to represent location, you know, how do we do that? So that's something or just like what other products can we expand to that kind of, you know, because it is also the, you know, the product and also just representing, like, local love and that idea of, you know, like a cool souvenir, or you know, that souvenir that you would actually want to use. So, it's, there's always that going on, especially this time of year, since we have, you know, shows coming up so,

Amy Loewenberg:

yeah, I was just gonna say, here's some local love the wheels are turning, we'll be able to see, because we're looking forward to seeing you in the aisles. And in August in New York now.

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah, we're excited to go are just like, Yeah, we have already like, Oh, my God, we have to start thinking about that. family trip this week, and then like, come back on my list is like, I have to start focusing and planning on that. So

Amy Loewenberg:

maybe we should have you guys work on our floor map a little bit. You know, it can be

Rachel Rheingold:

a map of where everybody is.

Amy Loewenberg:

That could be great, or I think would be great. All right. Well, listen, guys on that note, just want to say thank you so much for spending your morning with us even though this does air at 5pm on what is it the second Thursday of each month. So we're looking forward to win this drops and then just having you in our lineup forever on the paper plane podcast, our we're so pleased to talk with you, you guys have done such an amazing job and to share your story and your vision with us. It's just been a real pleasure. Thank you

Rachel Rheingold:

so much. I hope we I hope our answers are okay. We're newbies to this so yeah.

Sarah Schwartz:

You guys are great. And it's a treat to get to see to get to see you you know outside of outside of market and again and catch up and get your thoughts on you know, what goes into your what goes into your brands because you know, when when you walk in market as much as I'd love seeing you, you know, we just see the finished product. Obviously a lot more goes into it.

Rachel Rheingold:

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot more Yeah, that's definitely that's smoke and mirrors. But you know, like it's definitely finished and thing but yeah, there's there's a lot of boxes and scraps all over the place. And yeah,

Amy Loewenberg:

we get it. So before we say goodbye, goodbye. How can our listeners find you and reach you?

Rachel Rheingold:

So our website is map tote.com And we're on Instagram and Facebook. You can always email us I'm info at map koat.com And I pride myself in responding to pretty much as many emails as I can if not all of them often like unread emails I'm

Sarah Schwartz:

in New York now where they're all their products will be out and you can just look at all the different locales it's like a virtual visit around the world.

Amy Loewenberg:

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachel Rheingold:

Be there you will

Amy Loewenberg:

it looks it looks like you are as usual in the incredible gift and stationery section it looks like your booth number is 2621 so All right, everybody destination location mapped out. Thank you so much so much,

Rachel Rheingold:

guys. We

Amy Loewenberg:

really appreciate every one. Yeah, fine. Well, that was fun. I feel like we definitely discovered something about bringing a destination to life and unlocks form no less.

Sarah Schwartz:

I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into their process and how they balance business with family. I guess the answer is one day at a time. Of course, you'll be able to catch up with Rachel and Michael and have Course experienced their dynamic range at New York now next month. Until then, Amy, where can we find you?

Amy Loewenberg:

Well, you can always connect with me on Instagram LinkedIn or email me at work. I always want to highlight our amazing community on my New York now spotlight podcast, and a feature you guys on my Instagram store tours. I'm available to help connect you to new and needed resources. answer any of your new york now San Francisco now market or digital market questions. And of course sweet Sarah, how can we find you?

Sarah Schwartz:

Well, probably the best place to connect with me is at the paper nerd.com You can see more fabulous stationery coverage check out my podcast that paper folds and access stationery trends, the industry's award winning design driven trade quarterly as well. It's always a pleasure to learn more about makers and spotlight their work, whether it is in public publication, blog, or podcast form. If you want to connect, I'd love to hear from you. And meanwhile, Amy, I can't wait to see you next month in New York now. I feel like whenever I'm walking the show floor you just materialize around the next corner. I do that. listeners. If you see Amy bopping around, make sure you say hi. And also be sure to stop at her from floor to store exclusive booth that she personally and painstakingly curates.

Amy Loewenberg:

Oh, Sarah, thank you. The Florida store exclusive will once again be featured in the gift and stationery section. Actually, I'm booth 2441. We are expanding this year, which is super exciting. And we're creating a lounge situation connected to this feature along with some live sessions. And of course, this is just a small snapshot of some of my favorite goodies found within the section. So please, please stop by and say hello. Or if you see Sara and I perusing the aisles definitely grab us to say hello but be prepared to say hello on live Instagram. And of course watch out for Sarah's IG live and she is the queen of all this paper. And if we don't meet up, please don't hesitate to reach out to either of us with comments questions, feedback suggestions for guests or what have you. And don't forget, New York now is an online 365 sourcing and connection platform. So make sure to sign up and sign in. And definitely connect with us when you do. Thank you so much and we will talk with you soon.

Sarah Schwartz:

Cheers.